Reply #6: Disagree. [View All]

[Donald Ian Rankin]

I think that the state has a duty to be as parsimonious with the taxpayer's money as possible.

Teachers - like everyone else - should be paid the precise minimum amount necessary to persuade a sufficient number of sufficiently competent people to teach.

I think there's a strong case to be made for raising salaries for teachers in the US, but it's based on the fact that at present, while there are enough people volunteering to teach for the offered wage, there are probably not enough intelligent and well-trained people volunteering to teach for the offered wage, and the turnover is probably too high.

But any case for raising teachers salary should be based on the concrete "we will get better-quality teaching as a result", not on abstract notions of worth.

Public services are there for the consumers, not as a source of employment.